SUICIDE INSTALLATION OPENS IN PRAGUE

PRAGUE, 26 JUNE 2011  Despite public outcry online and
off, Czech artist Kritof Kintera's self-financed installation Memento
Mori: 'Of One's Own Volition' was officially launched at a lighting
ceremony on Thursday 23 June at 8 pm in Folimanka Park. The
ten-meter-high work, in the shape of a twisted street lamp whose light
beams upwards, invites passers-by to turn their gaze upwards and
spend a quiet moment contemplating life's ups and downs which in certain
tragic cases cause people to make irreversible decisions.

Symbolically, and thus the source of its criticism,
Kintera's sculpture is located beneath Prague's Nusle Bridge from
which hundreds of people have jumped to their deaths over the course of
the artist's 37-year life. Official statistics give figures in the
range of 200  300 suicides since the 42.5 meter-high bridge was completed
in 1973.

According to an artist statement, the controversial Prague
installation will be accompanied by a website presenting two opposing
views on the voluntary termination of life, a list of crisis intervention
centres, a discussion forum, photographic documentation and other
contributions on the subject of suicide. Some Czechs consider suicide a
"cowardly" act.

Memento Mori: 'Of One's Own Volition' is not the only artwork
of its kind in Kintera's artistic practice. A close 'relative' is to be
found in Tiburg in the Netherlands, where he used a similar approach to
produce the work Miracle.